Hiroshi Sugimoto - the Day After

In Sugimoto's latest works Lighting Fields he generates photographs without a camera, rather like a photogram. But instead of placing an object on photo-sensitive paper, then exposing it to light, he produces the image by causing electrical sparks to erupt over the film's surface. The process creates a similar situation to the first meteorite hitting the Earth, he said, before embarking on a discussion about the panspermia hypothesis, which holds that life was created when meteorites laced with amino acids plunged into the primordial seas. That's the theory that's most believable now, Mr. Sugimoto observed wryly. But it sounds like a fairy tale to me. In The Day After Sugimoto's first show with The Pace Gallery he combines early works from Seascapes and Dioramas to underscore the epic nature of these pieces, the largest the photographer has made to date.